From State-Directed Non-Development and Organized
Gender Violence to Transition in Vojvodina and Serbia
Tatjana Djuric-Kuzmanovic, The Advanced Business School, Novi Sad
htroduction
The introduction of gender as an analytical tool in development economics is
often related to questions about the social construction of male and female productive
and reproductive roles and their relationships. Gendered studies of economic
development focus not only on economic growth as important; they also suppose
structural changes such as decreasing rates of poverty, inequality, and unemployment
for both sexes as desirable goals. However, social development, in any country, also
has to be treated as a multidimensional and continuous process of solving numerous
and complicated social problems, with an understanding that these solutions, at the
same time, produce'new and more complicated questions. In this paper, I will use a
Gender and Development (GAD) approach to discuss the significance of gender
equality as a political and social condition for the successful economic and social
development of Serbia.
General Conditions of Non-Development in Vojvodina and Serbia during
the 1990s
Wars disintegrated socialist Yugoslavia in the 1990s; the economic sanctions
and consequent isolation that were introduced thereafter deteriorated the economy and
destablalized politics and society. Today, social destruction and poverty stand as the
essential dimensions of social crisis in Serbia.1 The postsocialist Serbian regime
actively rejects an economic transition towards a market economy and maintains, in
my opinion, a generally stagnant economic policy (Djuric-Kuzmanovic 1997; DjuricKuzmanovic and Zarkov 1999). The government's refusal to accept the transition to a
market economy is illustrated in part by their renationalization in the 1990s of firms
that had previously been privatized by enterprise laws in the 1980s. Furthermore, the
state has become the de facto owner of the majority of firms, exercising power over
their business decisions, the elections of their general managers, and encouraging
government members to remain owners or general managers of the largest firms in
Serbia while in office. Administrative control over the market of goods and prices of
products is prominent, and the labor market and money market are practically
nonexistent. Exports and imports are also under state control. I refer to this specific
form of state economy policy as "state-directed non-development." In other words,
this is a systematic and complex mechanism operating to prevent not only a transition
KroeberAnthropological Society Papers Fall2001 86:27-35.
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to a market economy, but any economic and political development that will
undermine the existing benefits of the already struggling oligarchy. It deliberately
discredits the most important categories of the market economy and impoverishes the
citizens, finding an apt justification in a self-proclaimed higher cause-the "fate" of
the nation.
The economic situation in Serbia is dramatic and specifically represents an
example of what I call non-development. Some elements of the Serbian market
economy have been embraced by the informal economy of the service sector. As a
matter of fact, it is estimated that the informal economy in Serbia makes up one half
of the gross domestic product (GDP) (Dragas 2000). However, it is mainly state
management in the economy that determines policy, policy which is often followed by
the paralysis of functioning social institutions, penetrated by so called "para-state"
structures, corruption, and criminals. Socialist Yugoslavia has the highest level of
corruption in Europe with a corruption perception index (CPI) of 2.0 in 1999, and is
considered to be in the same extreme category as countries such as Kenya and
Paraguay (Transparency International 1999). This has had a serious economic impact.
From 1990 through 1999 the average growth rate of gross national product of Serbia
was negative seven percent (Group 17 2000), and the per capita gross national product
of Serbia in 1990 (without Kosovo) was nearly twice as high than it was in 1999
(from US$3250 to US$1650). About 60 percent of the total population now lives
bellow the poverty line (Sukovic 2000). While an average monthly salary in
December 1990 was US$376, by December 1999 it was only US$43.50 (Group 17
2000).
The Impact of Transition on Serbian Women
Although the forms and contexts of reforms in Eastern European countries
differ from country to country, the similarities of women's positions in these countries
have been noted (Funk and Mueller 1993; Aslanbeigui, Pressman, and Summerfield
1994; Holzner, Truong, and Krahl 1997). Almost all research confirms that reforms
introduced by transitional governments have contributed to the deterioration of
women's social status.
Women in Vojvodina and Serbia are specifically subordinated in the public
sphere (in fims and institutions) as well as in the private sphere of the family. Their
labor contribution in the public sphere is substantial, but they are rarely publicly
recognized for it. For example, in the teaching profession, women comprise 64
percent of teachers in primary schools, 51 percent in secondary schools, and 30
percent at higher levels (SGJ I991:339-343). However, women comprise only onepercent of the members of the Academy of Science of FR Yugoslavia and no woman
has ever held the post of Rector at the University of Belgrade (Milivojevic 1994).
According to Markov and Stankovic (1991), women are seldom at the top of
Djunc-Kuzmanovic
State-Directed Non-Development to Transition
29
management hierarchies either. Only two percent of women are directors in mainly
small enterprises.
In Serbian politics women were and still are rare and even rarer still as heads
of political parties. For example, the Democratic Opposition of Serbia (DOS) owes a
large part of its victory in the federal elections last September to young women voters,
but less than five percent of active politicians in the party are women (Peric-Zimonic
2000), and only eight female candidates became members of Federal (Yugoslav)
Parliament.2 During the parliamentary republic elections in Serbia last December
women s organizations demanded that 30 percent of the candidates be women, but
only 21 female candidates became members of Republic (Serbian) Parliament.3
Currently, in all political structures, from the local to the federal level, only six to
seven percent of politicians are women (Rajacic-Capakovic 2000).
There are no legal grounds preventing women from taking part in Serbian
economics or politics. The subordinated position of women is the articulations of
what I believe are two more subtle registers of hegemony, (1) a culture of patriarchy;
and (2) an economic system of domination. This is despite the fact that the Socialist
state publicly proclaimed the development of a humane equal society as one of its
main goals. According to the Socialist state, humanization should have been achieved
through the simultaneous participation of workers in the process of social
reproduction and the withering away of the state, first from the economy, and then
from other spheres of social life. Both principles were especially present in the
government sponsored socialist project concerning the emancipation of women.
Thus, women should have operated as equal participants in the development of the
socialist economy and society as a whole as well as being the protectors and nurturers
of the young and future generations. However, as recent feminist literature on
women's emancipation in socialism demonstrates, women were not equal partners,
either in the public or private realm. In this patriarchal system, where maternity is the
prevailing cultural pattern of female existence, women conducted unrecognized dual
roles by working within and outside the home, becoming responsible for ensuring
both the moral and economic security of the family, but they were only recognized for
their role in the private sphere. Today, just over half (or about 500,000 members) of
the unemployed population is women.
During this time, women have become the numerous victims of nationalistic
collapsing processes in politics, economics, and society. When they have power, it
lies in their importance as symbols of nationalist policies and, willingly or
unwillingly, as the "mothers of the nations." They are also among the most numerous
victims of the devastating consequences of a "nationalist hysteria"' (Bibo 1991). The
existing gap between the publicly proclaimed equality between sexes and the real
status of women in socialist Yugoslavia and new postsocialist practices in Serbia have
turned towards the absolute glorification of women's more traditional roles. They are
simultaneously mythologized as possessing the "nation's deepest" essence and
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instrumentalized as the "nation's life/birth saver/protector," but otherwise they are
invisible (Papic 1994). In this situation, women's already faint political voice
becomes absolutely quiet; as a result public politics become primarily a male arena.
The only female political subjects are members of small parties, which typically
refuse atrocities perpetuated in the name of nationalism, war, and violence politics, as
well as some pacifist and feminist groups. In general, these gendered political actions
remain ineffective. This fact becomes especially painful in the realm of war. The rise
of violence against women in war zones, in addition to areas of relative peace, is
seldom addressed in public discourse. Only small women's groups deal with these
issues.4 One of these groups, Women in Black Against War, made a document "I
Confess"5 in October 1998, on the seventh anniversary of their anti-war activity. In it
they confess that they actually took care of all other ethnicities, nationalities, faiths,
race, and sexual orientation, while the "patriots" took care only of themselves. They
should thus be recognized as playing important roles in the future of Yugoslavia and
not reduced to the status of victims (Women in Black 1988).
During the late 1990s the situation has become worse. For women, the loss of
and
the difficulty of finding new ones generally result from the worsening of
jobs
women's position at home (Blagojevic 1955; Papic 2000). Many Yugoslavian women
now accept the most patriarchal expectations of themselves, thereby sacrificing
themselves for their country. They now equate the survival of their own family with
"saving the nation." Although women work longer and harder than men at home, they
aren't compensated for their labor and this has become the expectation of women.
While women are exalted in their roles as wives and mothers, they have been pushed
out of the economic and political sphere (Djuric-Kuzmanovic 1995). All these
manifestations of socio-political collapse, I understand as state-organized acts of
violence against women.
Women and Transition in Vojvodina and Serbia: Current Developments
and Future Trends
However, recent developments in Yugoslavia towards democracy create a
new space for discussing more hopeful and possibly egalitarian and yet undefined
future away from dictatorship and isolation. The recent victory of the Democratic
Opposition of Serbia (DOS) at the Yugoslav federal elections in September implies
the end of international isolation and the beginning of true democratic reforms in FR
Yugoslavia. The anti-Milosevic plebiscite at the federal elections, the protests and
democratic revolution in October, and finally, the recently completed Serbian republic
elections in December confirm that the last authoritarian regime in Europe may be
over. But the consequences of their regimes are clearly visible and painful and it will
be very hard to cure them. The experiences of other ex-socialist transition economies
in Central and East Europe warn of many potential difficulties and some socially
painful consequences of transitioning to a capitalist economy. In Eastern Europe,
Djuric-Kuzmanovic
State-Directed Non-Development to Transition
31
economic transition has generally meant the liberalization of bureaucratic
management of the economy, wide-scale re-privatization, and economic restructuring
(Djuric-Kuzmanovic and Zarkov 1998). In the case of Serbia, a radical reform of the
existing mixed economic system towards a more market oriented one will necessarily
integrate market factors such as labor, capital, and goods, but these will be difficult
concepts to introduce to the society at large.
To some extent it is possible to predict how transition towards a market
economy in Serbia will effect women's positions in the labor market.6 Unfortunately,
if development strategies do not include sensitivity to gender, the estimation cannot be
good. Research on Central and Eastern European countries has already confirmed that
economic transformation impacts women especially negatively, contributing to their
losses in the fields of employment, social welfare, and participation in political
processes (Kandiyoti 2000:124). In a country like Serbia, where women are
struggling to remain employed primarily to secure not only survival for their families,
but also to maintain their own economic position and self-worth, any decrease of
female labor supply during transition is unlikely. However, paid maternity leave and
privatized childcare, as institutionalized benefit categories, are impossible features for
the moment. Women will thus continue to play their dual economic roles in the
public and private sphere without recognition of their special needs as women.
I anticipate that the increases in pay associated with a market economy will
also fail to ultimately benefit Serbian women. In developed capitalist countries
women still earn 30 percent less than men with the same education, experience, and
position. Furthermore, the difference in pay is generally higher in the private sector
than in the public sector. In transitioning countries, the private sector is the fastest
expanding sector and is largely dominated by men. Thus, it makes sense to expect
that the gap between women and men's wages will increase further. In our situation
of generally high unemployment, it is to be expected that the structure of employment
changes will generate more temporary, seasonal, and low-paying jobs for unemployed
men, pushing women out of such marginal employment opportunities. Highly
educated and skilled women may still get new job opportunities in newly expanding
sectors, but these will be a few female winners among many female losers.
Thus, I think the general question for Serbia now is not so much if
development will become the priority of the Serbian government, but rather will
development be constructed merely in the sense of economic growth and structural
change, or will it also be constructed as a form of social justice? The most recent data
from other former socialist countries demonstrates that in general, development
strategies used in transitioning countries have sharpened economic inequalities
between women and men, as well as among women, and that this has delayed the
successful transition of these countries. In this paper, I have attempted to describe
Serbia on the brink of transition, a country ready to move forward but perhaps
resistant to learn from the knowledge of other's past mistakes. We have an
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opportunity to transform the nation now, but our development strategies must include
sensitivity to gender, and must specifically recognize women's large contribution to
Serbian society. To exclude the needs of women in a time of such great potential is
ultimately to reduce the chances of Serbia's successful move towards stability.
Notes
'Some Yugoslav sociologists defined the situation in Serbia as "destruction of the
society," "breakdown," "organized chaos" (Lazic 1994; Bolcic 1994)
2One of the few is Mira Markovic, Milosevic's wife, who heads the neo-Marxist
Yugoslav Left party (JUL).
3Recently, Vuk Obradovic, head of Socialdemocratia (one of the eighteen parties
which makes DOS) gives his place of member of republic Serbian Parliament to
female candidate 0. Kircanski in order to fulfill the demands of women's
organizations (Dragas 2000).
4The most famous women's' group in Serbia is Women in Black, Autonomous
Women's center Against Sexual Violence and Women's Studies Centers. They were
mainly fighting against war, nationalist polices and its effect on women, but they did
not attract massive public attention.
5They "confess," like they did some criminal act by having and showing respect
for all men and women, because it was not to much popular to admit in public.
Official ideology proclaimed that the Serbs are only victims in wars in Slovenia,
Croatia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina. So, in these circumstances, Women in Black
were also very brave.
6There are more factors influencing the female labor supply: the level of salaries,
the level of unemployment, the contribution of male in household work, the number of
children, state policy towards family and childcare, the availability of household
appliances, social norms, and values of female labor market participation. Some of
these factors will not change by transition, at least in the short term. For example, the
number of children per household is not expected to change dramatically. Some other
factors, like the male contribution to household work, will remain unchanged. We can
make the same predictions for the traditional gender division of other unpaid work.
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